More craziness.

Liz woke up in a great mood yesterday from her nap, so we decided to go to the Trick or Treating event downtown. Lizzy looked so cute in her little tutu - my little ballerina danced all over the house while we were getting ready. Liz was the only ballerina at the party, it took her all of two tables to realize that if she said "Trick or Treat" she would get candy... the hardest part after that was getting her to slow down enough to say thank you to everyone! We played a few games along the way, but before long she had a bucket full of candy so we headed over to the story room (kid version) where there were some sweet ladies reading a story about pumpkins to the kids. They got gummy snacks here (thank God, finally something she could eat!) and a sucker.

After the ToT'ing we went straight to my mom's to drop Liz off and then straight over to small group. I just have to say I really love our group. We have some amazing people in it, and Jay and I really feel blessed to have found such a great place to call "home". We're just finishing our series on Proverbs and will be starting a parenting study soon. It's so great, I just feel like we have so much in common with these people. We're all parents, with a variety of ages between our kids. But we all have the desire to bring up respectful, Godly kids and I learn so much from being around these other more experienced mom's. Each week I feel like a lightbulb get's turned on for me in the parenting department. LOL I'm so new to all this still, sure I think I can handle a baby... but a toddler? Oooooh hooo this is all different. A child who's discovering the world of rebellion and authority? I don't have a clue. And every time I feel that I've finally gotten something right with Lizzy... she grows, changes a little, and I have to start from scratch. It's amazing and frustrating all in one. She challenges everything right now. Pushes every boundry, plays her dad and I against each other when she doesn't get what she wants... so I've realized, I need all the help I can get - and watching other mom's who've walked this road before me is really helping my mindset with everything. So anyways, I'm grateful that we found this group.

Today was a long, and yet short day. We all slept in and had a lazy morning. About 11:30 we decided to go to the Coastal Carolina Fair. $16 later to get in, we decided this would be our "bad" day for the week and we were going to enjoy it! Off to get a corndog for Lizzy and Jay, I got an Italian Sausage with peppers and onions. YUM. Topped it off with a Jumbo lemonade that the 3 of us split and at Jay's promting we tried the fried cheese on a stick. NASTY. Liz was the only one who liked fried cheddar. *barf* Then we walked around for a bit, Jay had to get a Turkey Leg - knowing that he wouldn't finish it but it reminded him so much of Disney World that he just had to get one... we all took a little nibble and then fed it to the birds (nice huh?) After that we headed over to the animals where I fell in love with a horse. They had a couple out for petting and the rest were behind an 8 foot chain link fence... well one old fellow who happened to be behind the fence just looked SO lonely... I stuck a few fingers through the fence and started to scratch him behind the ears (after he'd had a good sniff of my hand of course... I'm not completely stupid) LOL and wouldn't you know he started leaning so hard on the fence he almost knocked it over! He wanted some attention so badly it almost broke my heart. I stayed as long as I could and petted and talked to him while Jay took Liz around to play with the cows. I never felt bad for the animals at the fair until I met this guy... but perhaps he's like that with everyone so he can get an extra pat or two. Anyway, we made our way over to the pumpkin area for a couple of pictures and then decided to head home. We'd only been there about 3 hours but it was getting close to Lizzy's nap time and I've learned my lesson on keeping her out too long. Oh, but on the way out we got a funnel cake with powdered sugar. Good Lord. I think I gained half my pregnancy weight today in fair food. $30 in food later, and $16 in tickets... that was one heck of an expensive lunch. But it was fun, and Liz had a ball so I considered it a sucessful day. We all napped when we got home and then went to Arby's for dinner where I had a salad... and a couple of Jay's poppers. SO not a good idea. One heck of a stomach ache later, it got so bad it hurt to breathe for awhile there! When will I learn... NO SPICY FOOD. I swear, I'm thick sometimes. But that's not news to anyone. LOL

Tomorrow's church, and then hopefully a laid back afternoon. We've been too crazy lately!

Fun Times!

Man I love this time of year. Having Lizzy has only made it 100x's more fun and more eventful. The weather has been beautiful (usually hot but some really great cool days as well) and it's not even halloween yet and we've already had the chance to do some really fun things this year!

I have a new (substitute) dropshots page right now. Someone changed my password and blocked me from my current dropshots, but I have an email into their staff so hopefully it'll work out soon.

Anyway, the new site is www.dropshots.com/ElizabethJoy That's were ALL the fun pictures are of the last week or so - but I'll post some highlights.

Lizzy had a great time with the Charleston Mommies group last Saturday. We all went pumpkin picking, ball bouncing, hay mazing and more. It was a really fun day and all the kids had a great time.

Then Tuesday we were right back at the Wescot Cornfield picking MORE pumpkins and this time painting them, and having a blast with Lizzy's preschool! Liz and her best buddy Riley were pretty much joined at the hip the whole time, they had a great time playing around. (It's so hard to get Liz to smile for pictures these days, she's such a busybody she wants to be looking around all the time so as not to miss a single thing going on around her! Stop for pictures? No way mom!)

After all that excitment, Lizzy's Nanny got back from Hawaii this week. She brought Lizzy the CUTEST little hula outfit. Lizzy LOVED it. She's put it on at least 50x's in the last 3 days. She loves dancin around the house and clankin those coconuts. Check out the dropshotspage for a video of her dancin. So funny.

And if THAT Wasn't enough excitement (and crazy pictures) we got to go to the Disney Princess's on Ice last night! OMG That was so cute. Just walking in the Coliseum felt like we were walking around Downtown Disney... Princess Music Playing everywhere, fun statues of Mickey and Minnie all over the place - everyone was selling stuffed animals, snowcones in Mickey or Princess cups, wands and tiara's galore! It was so fun! Lizzy and I were both ear to ear grins walking around and looking at all the other little girls dressed up! Riley and her mama were already seated when we got there, Riley was all dressed up and had a Princess Hat - she looked so cute! I had gone to Walmart before we went to the show and picked up some fun things to keep the girls busy, so here's a picture of their new wands (Disney was selling wands for $25... I found these at Walmart for $1 each. Gotta love that!)

The girls looked SO cute all dressed up together! I took a ton of pics but none of them turned out all that great... here's one of Lizzy all ready to go (an hour before it was time to leave) ;)

And here's one last picture of the girls as the show was ending... they did so great for over 2 hours!!! When the show finally let out at a 9:45 they were both tired but still troopin. They'd had a great time! I brought along some princess coloring books, skittles, popcorn and gummie bears and it's a good thing I did... that kept Liz busy whenever she'd start getting squirmy. As much as she loved the princesses it was kinda hard to sit for almost 3 hours. (The show started at 7:30 but we got there at 7)

Okay. So by the time we got home, my kiddo knocked out until 9:30 this morning! I'm having SO much fun with this girl! She's finally at the age where she can really enjoy it all. Today we're meeting the Charleston Mommies for lunch at Wild Wing (we were going to have a park morning but the weather's rainy here so we bailed on that and settled on lunch) and we *might* take Lizzy trick or treating this afternoon at Hampton Park downtown, they're having a big party for kids from 4-6 but we have small group at 6:30 about 30 minutes north so I'm not sure as we'll be cutting it close. I'll have to see how Liz does with her nap this afternoon, if she's up by 3 or so we'll probably go do it. Although I'm kinda pooped with all the craziness of late... I might just be happy hanging out at the house this afternoon. We'll see.

Now I need to go get ready for lunch. :)

Updates.

Okay, so it's been 4 days since I posted. I've been working like crazy on my site... which now has a new name and new address... and I *love* it, the name that is. The site I'm not thrilled with, but it's the best I could do for now. Once I'm making more money I'll pay for a big site but this will get me by. I'm not going to share the new site name until I get all my inventory updated.

Anyway... aside from business. I got a car yesterday! YAY! It's a vovlo V70. LOL And I'm in love with it. Here's a pic so you can see my soccer mom car. LOL

Mine's all black though with darker tint in the windows.

So anyway... that's my fun new car. :) I love Volvo's. That's the Charleston part of me coming out... but Volvo's are so classic. LOL

Okay, so anyways. Yesterday morning we went to the Pumpkin patch with Lizzy's class. FUN. Liz and her best friend Riley held hands the whole time. It was so cute. Her teacher always tells me that they're glued at the hip but I'd not seen it for myself until yesterday. Then right before we left Riley's mom came over with 2 tickets to Disney Princess's on Ice for this Thursday night. So Liz and Riley are going to dress up and us mom's will take our cuties to the show tomorrow night! So fun. We were going to wait until Nemo came to town b/c Iw asn't sure how Liz would do with face characters (if she'd get bored or whatnot) but I think she'll do fine. And who can say no to free tickets with friends? All in all yesterday was a VERY busy but fun day. We didn't get home until after 11 so Liz slept in until 10 this morning... Love that! Then Tomorrow we have preschool, then the Princess show tomorrow night. Friday is a meet up with the Charleston Mommies, then Trick or Treating at Hampton Park friday afternoon... This is going to be a crazy week.

So there's my update. Once I get these next few pieces added to my site I'll be sure to let everyone know the new name and web address. :)

Stuffy Reflections

Liz and I are both fighting allergies right now. Neither of us have been sleeping well and last night at 3 am we had a little party in her room. She woke up crying for me, sobbing for mommy in that sleepy voice of hers that I love so much. I went in and sat beside her bed trying to figure out which ailment was bothering her... from the obvious dripping nose I figured it was that. So I grabbed a few tissues, some more meds and a story and we cuddled and talked for awhile until I saw her getting sleepy again. For almost an hour it was just her and I... it felt like we were the only one's awake in the whole world. Just listening to her tell me about her minnie's, and blankies... watching her eyes light up as she found her favorite one's in the semi dark room. I realized that this time is passing so quickly. Before I know it I'll have someone else needing my attention at 3 am... someone else stealing my heart in those quiet moments of the night. But it also made me smile. In my wildest dreams I can't imagine possibly loving anyone as much as I do my Lizzy, but after I went back to bed around 4, Maddy woke up and was moving all around as if letting me know that she's going to want some late night fun too before long. And once again I felt my heart stretching.

In a few minutes we're leaving to go pumpkin picking. I love these fall moments (with my kid in shorts and sandals) :P It doesn't *feel* like fall outside, but spending time with Jay and Lizzy doing fun activities like hay rides, petting zoo's and pumpkin picking is enough fall for me. :)

My husband has been spoiling me lately. My back has been really sore for about a week now, our pillow top mattress was once much loved... and now it just drives me crazy b/c it's SO bad for my back. So he stopped in at Babies R Us the other day and picked up a Mother's Snuggly Pillow for me. I've had 2 great nights of sleep, where I've actually been able to go more than an hour or two without tossing and turning/peeing/waking up for some other reason. The night before last I slept for 5 hours straight! And last night even with Lizzy and I's little escapade I still knocked out from 4-9 this morning! :D Anyway, that's just one of the sweet things he's done for me lately. Just had to throw that out there... I'm blessed. :)

Anyway, we're leaving in 20 minutes and I need to finish getting ready. Just thought I'd share my little stuffy reflection. ;)

Woot Woot!

Okay, I'm super excited, I'm working on my website for Tailored Tots and for the next 10 days while we're working on it we have a new temp address.



(once we finish it it'll be shortened to either tailoredtots.com or something similar) but for now, y'all can see what I've been up to over there. I put the whole thing together myself so it's probably got a million spelling errors, but I'm working out the kinks. I'm slowly updating the product list so bear with me... but please please please let me know if you have the time to peek around... if you see anything that needs changed or updated definately say something! Y'all know me and grammer don't mix well. :P Let alone spelling. But I've had several people asking me to make bows for their girls in the last few days, so I'm trying to get this all together so I can do it right (aka legally) so it's a legit business. Anyway, y'all are my closest buddies... be honest please!

Love you all, thanks for all the encouragement and support. You guys are fantastic. :)

Christmas List

(For those who read my blog, this is entirely boring and unrelated to daily life.)

Okay, I needed a place to keep my Christmas list where Jay wouldn't happen across it, and this was the first thing that popped in my mind as he never reads my blog.

So here we are. It's that time of year again and I need to start making out lists for Liz, Jay, Madeline (yes I'll do some shopping for her too since she'll be here so soon after the holidays), my family, Jay's family, and then a few friends. Whew. That's a long list. Usually by this time of year I'm almost finished... or at least have a good start. Uh, yeah, not this year. I have about 3 things for Lizzy and that's it, haven't even started on anyone else yet.

(I'll probably update this and change it 30 million times but I like having it in front of me where at least I can get a start)

The stuff that has a (*) are things I've already purchased.
Here goes:

Elizabeth:
*Red and Black scottie dog outfit
*Jumbo sidewalk chalk (for stocking)
*Look and Find Nemo book
FP Little People - Time to learn Preschool http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2299121
Small Table and Chairs for her playroom http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2309217
FP Little People - Learning zoo. http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=3985040
Meet the Robinsons DVD
The Jungle Book DVD
And probably a few more clothes things including some panties as I'm deterimined to have this child potty trained before Maddy arrives.
I'm going to do a Little People stocking for Liz this year, they have lots of little sets so I'll add some of those into her stocking, bubble bath, character washcloth, etc.

Jay:
Clothes. My husband needs clothes and this is something he loves getting for Christmas so there you have it. Mostly clothes for him.
Harbor Freight gift card for his stocking.
A new Watch.
Armani Mania
A new movie (though I have no idea what)
and maybe a board game, idk, he loves board games but we have a bunch of them... i need to figure out something fun though. I hate to make it an all clothes/accessories christmas... even though he likes it, it's not all that fun, and he's a fun guy... I'll think on this one.

Madeline:
*Blankets
Her name in wooden letters to go above her crib.
Something special but simple... not sure what yet but it'll hit me.

And I just realized, pretty much everyone else on my list has access to my myspace which has a link to this, so I guess I'll save my extended family and friend's list on the computer. Off to work on it...

(What a pitiful list this turned out to be... I've got to get thinking of what I can do for Jay and Maddy! AHHHHH) For those of you who were bored enough to read this... any suggestions for something Fun for Jay and something special for the baby?

Loooong Night.

I realized last night, about 1:30 in the morning... I'm not as ready as I thought I was for Madeline. Seriously. Lizzy has a cold/allergies and was up every hour on the hour from 7 until 1:30 this morning... we used the snot sucker thingy, but she was absolutely dripping from the nose - the poor kid soaked through her blankie, her pillow and sheet within 3 hours... (and I'm not talking about pee) between the drool b/c she couldn't breathe out her nose and the drippings from her nose she was miserable. My poor baby would cry and cry and I felt so awful. I didn't want to give her any Benedryl since we weren't positive it was allergies and I didn't want to cover up any other symptoms... but in those 5 1/2 hours I realized... I am not ready for Madeline yet. I went to bed around 8 and then the two of us were up until close to 2 am by the time I got her back to sleep that last time... And my body felt almost numb, I was sooooo tired. I cannot even begin to imagine Maddy getting up several times a night and then Lizzy getting up if she's sick too? Lord in heavens shoot me now. Fortunately this is rare... a call into the nurse at midnight said it was okay to give her one dose of Benedryl the next time she woke up - so when she went down at 2, she was able to sleep until 9 this morning. However, Jay got up at 6 for work so I was up with him for awhile. I went back to bed a little after 7, and then woke up at 8:30 and couldn't get back to sleep. Liz had soaked her diaper (sheets, blankets, etc) when she got up this morning, but she was in good spirits. Dried snot all over her face, neck, hair and PJ's... but all smiles all the same. LOL

So on top of the full load of laundry I have just from the last 12 hours of my daughters life, I also realized that I'm not quite as ready for this baby as I thought. What if they both get sick? What if all 4 of us get sick?! AHHHHHHHHHHHHH. That is a scary thought.

Anyway, they *promised* my car would be ready tonight (though I have to drop it off again this weekend to get the AC fixed) but at least this way I'll have something to drive... but until then, Liz and I are having a house day. Which works for me. The last few days have been crazy. I'm ready for a break. So that's the most recent update. I hope Liz takes a long nap today... it's only 10 am and I could use one. *yawn*

Tailored Tots

I'm trying the name on for size - nothings been ordered yet, but I really like this one best so far.

Oh and for those I haven't told yet, I started a small business of boutique style bows. Originally I was only going to do bows, but the business has grown so now in addition to our Boutique Bows, we offer Confetti Bows, Pinwheel Bows, Headbands, Personalized Accessory Organizers, Baby Blankets and coming soon: Our new line of A-line dresses for girls, and pantall's for boys and girls.

The link is to the left.

I've only got pictures of a few bows up so far as we're having some professional shots done of the PAO's, baby blankets and clothing. (Not to mention the clothing is a very small line thus far so I'm trying to build up my inventory right now as well.) Once I finish these next 2 dresses and set of pantall's I'll put them all online.

Anyway... so this is what I've been busy with. What do y'all think of the name? Tailored Tots fits better than Bizzy Lizzy Boutique both on clothing tags but also because we offer several boy lines (blankets and pants) BLB sounded too girly for me. We've got a few other names we're thinking of... but this is it for now. :)

Take a peek around my website and let me know what you think of my new line of bows! There are several I haven't had a chance to upload yet but this is sort of a brief overview of what we've got so far. Hope y'all like it!

20 Weeks Today!

Wow. It's official guys... we're half way there!!!! Scary. And exciting. Mostly scary though. LOL A couple pregnancy updates... the worst being I'm having horrible horrible, gut wrenching, wake up with tears streaming down my face nightmares... every. single. night. Sometimes multiple times a night. :( From most of my mommytobe friends I've been chatting with that are about the same in weeks, it's started for them also, so I don't think it's anything abnormal, so much as terribly scary. I hate falling asleep right now, even naps bring on dreams of Lizzy being kidnapped, Jay being shot, Maddy having issues... it's awful. I think it also has alot to do with the stress I've been under so I'm really going to try and take it easy this week. Jay's going to make a point of leaving business stress at the door, and I'm going to try to keep Lizzy's day to day learnings (aka pushing mommy's buttons) at the door and really try to see the bright side this week. I'll hopefully have my car back by Wednesday or Thursday, and Jay's mom is lending me her car so I can get to Tiff's in the morning to watch the kiddo's for her... that'll be an extra $30 which always helps as well.

Okay, enough of the Debby Downer. On an upside, Madeline has been kicking up a storm lately... it's funny because every time she does - I respond outloud with "Well, Hi baby!" And now Lizzy will see me stop suddenly and put my hand on my tummy, and she'll say "Hi baby!" even before I do. LOL It's so cute. She thinks my dad is having a baby. Hahaha. Daddy told me the other night, "I guess I need to work on my diet a little more as my grandaughter is convinced I'm going to have a baby soon." Too cute. After my big vent thread the other day, things have started looking up again on all fronts. The stress is still there, but I've got a good handle on it. I don't feel so frustrated with life, Liz or Jay - let alone bills, business or our cars. I've learned a valuable lesson through all of this... Life happens. And when life happens - be it good or bad, having friends who are there to offer hugs or a kind word make all the differance in the world... what once felt unbearable, is now tolerable. And I love y'all dearly for that. So anyways... life isn't so bad, it's just... life.

On the upside... the Bizzy Lizzy Boutique is doing quite well, though I'm thinking of renaming it. I took on a line of boy's pant and shortall's and it sounds a little too girly for boy stuff. So Jay and I are working on another name... I sort of just want something fun, unrelated to clothes etc. I had an idea this morning but the more I said it outloud I didn't like it... so anyways, once we rename it we can get our new website up. The current one is a freebie and has a funky address. But it works. I picked up some fabric today for a couple new dresses for Liz, and I've started making some new types of bows - so that's fun too. I've long wanted to make these but haven't taken the time to learn how - well now I have so tomorrow I'm going to put together some fall and christmas one's to see how it turns out... I'll post pics when I'm done.

So far I have regular bows, head bands, these new confetti bows, A-line dresses for babies and toddlers, Smock overcoats for toddler girls, pantall's for boys and baby blankets in various sizes. I can't wait to get our good website up and going... it'll feel more real then. I really need to get on a new name... once I get that done I can get my cards, clothing tags and website finished and then we'll be ready to go. Right now it's just word of mouth and local mom friends who buy my bows. I'm anxious to start selling the clothing as well as the blanket's and new bows.

I put together 4 new set's of christmas bows today and 3 new Halloween/Fall style sets. It took me about an hour to do all 7 sets. Not bad for time in front of the TV. ;)

So anyway, that's what's new. I'm half way there... somewhat scared of life with 2 kids. But also excited to see how it all works out. It hit me today at lunch that this time next year, I'll have one in a high chair and one running around the booth... lunch without Jay will cease to happen. LOL And even then, I have a feeling I'm going to be pretty worn out here soon. But, on the other hand... meeting Madeline and watching our family grow will be well worth the tiredness of learning how to do it all. I'm glad Jay likes to help out with Liz. If it wasn't for him - I'd be one foot in the grave right now - Maddy doesn't let me sleep well except on my left side, which I have a hard time staying on... all. night. long.

Everyone keep their fingers crossed that the nightmares subside a bit this week... hopefully if I take it a bit easier and try to only think of the positives in our life the dreams will ease up. Here's hoping! I'm off to bed... it's way past my bedtime, but putting off the inevitable just means I'm going to need a nap ever moreso tomorrow. LOL

Long but Fun Day.

Yesterday morning Lizzy, Jay and I all woke up pretty early... Jay had a ton of work to do but took pity on me and Liz and offerred to drive us to the Charleston Mommies Day out in downtown Charleston since my car is *still* in the shop and he had a bid to do downtown anyways. So off we go! He dropped us off at 10am at the pineapple fountain where I met up with Ashley and her 9 month old Emery:

Kay and her 9 month old Abby:

And Shannon and her 11 week old Riley:

We spent alot of time just playing around, chatting and letting the kids crawl/run around. I was proud of Lizzy, she's doing really well with being gentle around babies... she loved helping miss Emery keep her paci in, and they all shared some snacks. :)

After awhile we all walked over to T-Bonz where after much confusion with finding places for all the strollers, high chairs, boosters, etc, we had a nice lunch. A good time was had by all and before long we all said our goodbyes....

Liz and I decided to stay awhile (since daddy was busy over in Mt. P working) so we walked down King Street, browsed some shops for Christmas shopping... I got some ideas for Jay for Christmas, and then she and I walked to the Calhoun park and played around with the leaves, watched some doggies and enjoyed each other's company. About 30 minutes after we got there some CofC kids walked up and started tossing a football, Liz was all eyes... she *loves* watching people throw balls... everytime they'd throw the ball she'd clasp her hands and squeal "Fooball! Fooball!" It was really cute to watch. The kids got a laugh too watching her get so excited, so when they decided to take a break one of the guys walked over to his backpack and pulled out an extra football and brought it over to her so she could play for awhile too! That just made her day, she was glowing as she said "Thank you!!!" So we worked on "catch" (aka... mommy tosses it and it hits her in the tummy, rolls right off her arms and she giggles) LOL And throwing... aka... running at mommy, dropping the ball and then running away as fast as she could. She loved it. We played for nearly an hour back and forth, back and forth... eventually she was looking REALLY sleepy (technically she should have been home napping an hour ago, but we were trying not to rush daddy so we were just pushing through) so we returned the ball... (she tossed it at the kid and he caught it, making her grin from ear to ear as she said thank you again...) Then I spread out a couple of her blankets I brought along (since it was chilly when we went first got there) and we layed down and stared at the sky for awhile, she'd close her eyes and lay there for awhile while I scratched her back and then she'd perk up, run a few laps around the tree we were sitting under and then come back and lay down again. LOL Cutie pie.

Running around the tree:

Sweet smiles for mommy:

Blue eyes... ;)

Daddy finally called around 3 and we met up with him, loaded Liz up and she was out cold before we'd left downtown. LOL She napped for about 20 minutes on the way home and then when *I* was ready to nap after we got home, she was wide awake. *sigh* No such luck. LOL So instead we ran around, paid some bills, picked up dessert for home group and dropped Liz off at my parents (they left for Hawaii for 10 days today so they offered to watch her while we were at small goup, which I appreciated... it's hard to enjoy the group when I'm constantly worried about Liz getting into stuff at other peoples houses, or worrying about her and the group leaders 2 year old getting into it over a toy or something) Anyways... picked up a cherry cheeecake pie (YUM) from Publix and off we went. We didn't leave group until after 10pm and when we went to pick up Liz, she was still wide awake playing with Pawpaw... so after no nap, and staying out later than she has in months... my kiddo went straight to bed when we got home and slept until 8:30 this morning.

So that was our long but fun day. Hopefully Jay won't work to late today so we can do something later on... although it's noon and I admit, I'm still in my PJ's and enjoying not having to be anywhere right now. ;)

My List:

I changed up my list a bit since I wrote this earlier...
here's what I have: There's 8 mom's so everyone can sign up for one item(s)

1. Spider Cookies (already signed up for)
2. Grapes cut in half
3. Snack size sandwiches
4. Individual Orange Jello
5. Carrot or Apple Muffins
6. 2% milk.
7. Treat Bags to take home
8. Fall themed Plates, Napkins and Cups


Here's why I picked these... the grapes are universal, and easy to eat for toddlers, I don't want MY 2 year old eating 8 items of junk - so I tried to limit that since they're also having treats during the games... so as to the sandwiches - I'm thinking either finely chopped ham and cheddar - melted and then put on the bread so it'll stick together for the kids, and then use a pumpkin cookie cutter so they'll have pumpkin shaped ham sandwiches - OR finely chopped cucumbers with a cream cheese mix (a little lighter and definately kid friendly) still shaped like pumpkins. The orange jello is an easy "sweet" thing that hopefully won't send the kids into a sugar shock. The carrot or apple muffins are fall themed, yummy and reasonably healthy.

I also decided on plain old milk - because, let's be honest, after treats, cookies AND jello - do they really need more sugar in the Juice? I didn't think so. LOL

So there we have it... I love Dana's idea for the treat bags... TOO CUTE!

I told her teacher to just leave me for last and I'll make whatever else nobody wanted to sign up for. (I'm kind of hoping for the sandwiches or treat bags... those both look fun!)

Can you tell this kept me busy for much of the afternoon? LOL

Lizzy & Fire?!

No, don't worry... she didn't start a fire, get burned by a fire or really anything that has to do with *real* fire... but this was Fire Saftey week for her school. So tuesday the kids made tie dye shirts and practiced Stop. Drop. and Roll. Then today the fire department came in and worked with all the kids on fire safety... Liz came home with some fun souvineers for her day...



A fire Hat:
A stop drop and Roll Tshirt:

And of course we had to practice the stop. drop. roll part... this was liz... pre drop:

They also picked me for Room Mom today. So that'll be fun... my first assignment is due tomorrow... come up with 8 Fall Harvest (christian school so they don't call it halloween) Party favors/food stuff for the kids to snack on. Any ideas? I was thinking of dying some white grape juice bright orange (so it's still 100% juice - minus the 4 drops of food coloring.) ;) Or just bring in OJ - for some reason I think the kids prefer grape and apple juice though. I'll pick up some cute fall halloweeny paper plates and napkins... and one of the mom's already volunteered to make "spider cookies" So I need 7 more ideas. Any thoughts?

I'm feeling a little better today - not much has changed, but I'm coming to accept that this is just one of those things we have to go through and to keep on marchin... as a wise man (woman?) once said... "The only way to get through your current troubles is to not stop walkin... keep movin and eventually you'll be on the other side." Wise (albeit phrased a bit hillbilly) words. Fitting for the situation when I feel like just giving up.

So anyways... nothing new to report. Still don't have my car... bummed about that b/c it means staying at the house all day and we get cabin fever pretty easily these days. Next time we move, I'm making sure there's a park within walking distance - I'd love to just get out and take kiddo to the park this afternoon... she'd love that.

Well, that's all for now folks!

PrePartum?

*sigh* Alright y'all, brief moment of reality for Jess here... I try to keep a pretty upbeat attitude towards life, with the occassional bad day that I just brush off...

But the last few weeks have me wondering... is there such thing as prepartum depression? I swear, life just sucks right now. I mean... really really sucks. Let me preface this by saying sorry to all of you who keep emailing, texting, calling hoping for happy go lucky Jess. I just haven't been in the mood to talk lately. I know alot of this is probably hormones, but I am seriously feeling depressed right now. :(

Everything in my life seems to be going wrong, everytime I think we get a break, something else happens to make me want to pull my hair out. Lizzy aside (for she's a handful but always a joy to be around) I just hate my life. UGH. I mean, BOTH Jay and I's vehicles are broke down right now... and when Jay's breaks down - we have no income. And when we have no income, bills start piling up and I start freaking out. But if only that was the only problem... see, FIXING Jay's truck has turned into quite the ordeal. We took it to a mechanic, who "fixed" it for $300 - not terrible considering it's a 3500 truck... however, the next day while driving to a job, he broke down on the highway and never got it started again... we tow the truck back to the shop - shop starts the truck up and can't figure out what's wrong with it, we go to pick it up - breaks down 3 times on the way home - just shuts off completely. Doesn't overheat, doesn't run out of gas... just shuts off - and takes a minimum of 20 minutes between each time it restarts... (not to mention this entire time my car is out of commission b/c we can't afford to pick it up from the shop until we get paid again)

Fast forward to today - truck has worked... *ok* for 2 days now - shuts off occassionally but hasn't prevented Jay from working, he just takes a long time to get where he's going... I had a doctors appointment at 10 am... nurse calls at 9:30 asking if I could drive 45 minutes to their other location because my doctor wants to get in on a surgery over there this morning...Um... well, I have to pick DD up from preschool at 11:30, right next to the office close to me... there's no way I could drive 45 minutes, have an apt. (and blood work) and drive 45 minutes back in time to pick her up... not to mention, what the heck does that mean? "Wanting to get in on a surgery"??? So they called me back, informed me that she would indeed be "getting in on the surgery" and would be a little late for our apt....She hadn't even gone into surgery at 9:30 am... and it's a 45 min drive to this office... and she's only going to be a *little* late? *sigh* Jay took the morning off to take me since I always get shakey after blood work - we scheduled it so Liz was in school, (4 weeks ago) The doctor's not doing an emergancy surgery... apparently, just something "fun" she wanted to get in on, instead of making her appointments on time. Nice. (Yes, I realize this isn't entirely rational and I should try to be flexible and whatnot - but I'm rather annoyed anyways.)

Oh, but they still wanted me there at 10 so I could fill out some paperwork. Whatever. We show up at 10, fill out the paperwork. Pee in a cup, get put in a room... and sit... and sit... and sit... and an hour and a half later - still no doctor. She no showed us. And of course, they just couldn't possibly send in a PA or another doctor to help cover her patients - no they'd rather just leave us in a room with no word of anything. Well, we had to leave to pick up Liz so we ended up leaving... no appointment.

This wouldn't suck quite so bad if we had just been screwed by a doctor - but oh no, we get out to Jay's truck and guess what? It won't start. Yippfrickinee. Soooo I'm about a mile and 1/2 from Lizzy's preschool - I start walking while he works on the truck (aka pushes it home) Good thing we didn't go to the other office right? We'd have REALLY been screwed. I got ahold of mom and she was able to pick me up about a 1/2 mile from the school so I was only 10 minutes late picking her up.

DOES IT EVER END??!?!?!?!?!?!??! Of course not. We get home, go over our finances... and basically we're screwed right now. Just one sucky thing after another - one expense after another... and to top it all off, they couldn't reschedule my doctors appointment for another 4 weeks. Which means I'm now 8 weeks between visits, past the point of a 21 week diagnostic ultrasound... which screws us even more.

Joy.

So I pretty much had a major meltdown this afternoon... we put Lizzy down for a nap and I swear I cried for almost 2 hours straight... I haven't eaten anything (I know I know I will before I go to bed) since 9 this morning and I just feel sick about life. I mean, there's bad luck, and then there's GOD HATES ME days. This was one of them. Jay took his truck back to the mechanic this evening around 6, they're going to work on it together tonight to see if they can't figure out what's wrong - the guy said he wouldn't charge us anything else for labor if Jay would help him, so Jay's going to stay as late as he can until he get's it figured out.

So here I am. Frustrated out of my mind. Ready to say screw it, who needs prenatal care. I'll deliver the dang kid at home, how bad can it hurt right?

We figured out that even if I did go get a job... by the time we pay the penalties for pulling Liz out of her school and then paying for daycare... I'd basically be making nothing. I really really really hate life right now...

I'll get over it.

No need to respond if you've read this far...

I just needed to vent... badly.

*siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh* :(

Tall Kid.

So I was looking at the ride restriction list on allearsnet.com this morning and guess what? Lizzy is almost tall enough to ride... nearly EVERYTHING!

Crazy!

Check this out, she's ALREADY tall enough to ride Kali River Rapids and Goofy's Barnstormer... but she's only an inch and 1/2 from being able to ride: Dinosaur, Primevil Whirl, Body Wars, Soarin, Test Track, Splash Mountain, Stitches Great Escape, Star Tours and Tower of Terror...

Now I know that this doesn't mean I'd actually take her on all those - but some of them?! She'll love Splash Mountain, Test Track and Soarin! How fun!!!! Here I thought we'd be limited to kiddo rides for another couple years - but no, if she keeps going she'll probably be able ride all those rides for our May trip next spring! How FUN! Anyway, this completely made my day. I can't wait to share Splash Mountain with her. She'll just love it, I know! And Test Track? This kid LOVES stuff like that... wow... this will open up a whole new world of rides for her! I think I'll wait a few years for Tower of Terror and Dinosaur... I think those might scare her. But still! This December daddy and Lizzy can ride Goofy's Barnstormer together! I can't wait to see how she does! We'll skip Kali River Rapids for now too - that ride gets WAY too wet and it kind of freaks me out... I've heard of those things flipping before at other parks so I've always had a grudge against any river rapid ride. ;)

So check it out, as of next summer (assuming she grows an inch and 1/2) there will be one ride in each park she's not tall enough for... but everything else is fair game!!!
Animal Kingdom~ Everest
MGM~ Aerosmith Rockin Roller Coaster
Epcot~ Mission Space
Magic Kingdom~ Space Mt.

This is just too cool.

We sat and watched video's on Youtube this morning... Lizzy was requesting all her favorites, we watched Seas with Nemo, Pooh, Peter Pan, Buzz, Wishes, Spectromagic, (some of these were my favorites) :P But it was a fun way to spend some time together this morning... Liz get's so excited when she see's the characters. Too cute.

I'm stranded at the house today - My car's in the shop AGAIN. The radiator sprung a leak this weekend so we took it over yesterday... that's okay though. I have plenty of laundry to do and lots of healthy things for lunch so we'll be fine.

That's it for now... just had to update - there's definately advantages to an extremely tall kid! How fun! :D

Confession Time

Okay... so after all that writing about dieting and Krystyna being my motivator... (which she still is) I had a moment of EXTREME weakness tonight. Dang travel channel showing donuts... AHHHHHH Y'all know me and donuts! And I sat there glued to the TV watching them produce one krispy kreme glaze donut after another...

So Jay went on a donut run. I told him only 1. But still... 1 donut at almost 10 at night? Dear heavens I have no will power. *sigh*

Oh well. I'm going to savor every bite and kiss the ground my sweet husband walks on. :P

And there he is now! Catch ya later! 400 calories or so greater! ;)

Hair Cut Etc.

Okay... so I finally got Jay to take a couple pics this morning before church, they're sort of bad pics - hurried and whatnot, but at least y'all can finally see my hair. I've been getting threatened in all y'all's emails about getting it done - so here you go! ;)

Okay, so now that that's taken care of... lol No real updates. I got some new mums for the front of the house, (Maroon and Yellow) and put up my fall wreath... it's CUTE! We picked up some mini pumpkins to put around the house, but we're going to wait until our pumpkin excursions on the 20th and the 23rd to get the big pumpkins. Can't wait! I'm feeling pretty good... scoured my kitchen last night so it's nice and sparkely. I'm also officially *dieting* but not really. ;) I'm just watching what I eat instead of just watching the portions... I decided to start buying some of those new zero point soups from progresso (actually very tastey!), some 40 calerie per slice 100% whole wheat bread, and low cal turkey and low sodium, low cal swiss. And lots of grapes. LOL I figure if I can start cutting back on the calories and being more careful about eating out, then that might help me curb so much weight gain but still stay healthy for the baby.

That's my goal anyways. Krystyna motivated me... most my friends usually gain a pretty decent amount, but I was completely impressed with how K did, so I've decided to put in more effort to really keep my gain on the 25-30 lb range. Wish me luck! The upside of that is that Jay's been wanting to eat better lately too, so by me only buying the healthy stuff, he's going to start eating better whether he knows it or not. ;)

You know how good it feels to really scour and bleach your fridge? I did that last night (at 10 pm) and today woke up to a wonderfully clean sparkly fridge... I was a bit giddy over it, I admit. LOL Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a crappy housekeeper... there's always a few messes around my house at any given time, but I've been really proud of myself lately... I have one messy room in the whole house - and all the other rooms I've been keeping very very clean! (Vaccuming 2x's a week or more as needed, dusting, etc.) That's pretty impressive for me... I'm usually the biweekly, if that cleaner. The messy room is the sunroom... which also happens to be right next to the laundry room- so it get's the spill over of laundry. One of these days I'll get on top of all that too... but for now, I'm feeling pretty good about my house right now!

So that's all for now... bring on the fall weather! I'm sick of this heat and rain!

Mini Update

Well, it's been a few days since I posted last. And seeing as how the last couple posts were rather dramatic in the world of toddlerhood - I thought I'd update.

Lizzy's managed to refrain from any more accidents the last few days. I guess her 2 days of terror might have taught her a thing or two b/c now she'll look up at the top shelf in the bathtub and say "noooooo." (Even though the razor is now locked in the medicine cabinet.) Her finger is mostly healed, we still keep bandaids on it, but the hole healed pretty quickly with lots of neosporin and bandaids, it's got a few more days to be 100% but there's now it's just slowly filling in with new skin. The burn mark was gone by the next morning, it definately wasn't on full heat when she grabbed it - but I no longer do use my curling iron anyway since I just chopped all my hair off so it's been put away in the child proofed linen closet. I scoured the house for anything she could turn on/hurt herself with and really couldn't find alot but there were a couple cords I went ahead and hid/got rid of and a few sockets that were open (behind the side table in the living room) I figure she probably would never even reach those but given my child is a bit accident prone - I'm not taking any chances.

On the other side of kiddo news, the baby has been moving like crazy lately. It's so fun feeling her boot scoot and boogey around in there. I didn't feel Liz until about 5 1/2 months - this one is moving ALOT much earlier. I'm sure there's some medical reason like my muscles are stretching faster this time around but whatever the reason - I'm loving every little roll, flutter and occasional kick. This is that point where you love it before it starts hurting. ;) Sooo I'll take it. :)

I need to get a new picture up of my chopped off hair... sorry it's taken so long, the last few days have been crazy. I'll try to get one up later today. It's the most perfect 5 minute style ever! I love it, I just put mousse (sp?) on first and then blowdry and bam! All done. No styling necessary! I just brush it out and it's that easy... I'm kissing the ground my stylist walks on for giving me such an easy do. I got so tired of wearing my long hair up all the time b/c it took 20 minutes to blowdry and another 20 to style decent... this is so great, I don't even consider putting it up b/c it's so easy to leave down! YAY! (Sorry for the giddiness... it's a wee bit exciting for me as it makes all the differance in the world having a kiddo and an easy hairdo.) I can't take 40 minutes to work on my hair in the morning but I sure can do 5 minutes! :D

Anyway... not the most exciting update, but at least when I look back and read these a year from now I'll have my boring life recorded. :P

Oh Oh! I did get Liz a REALLY cute fall outfit from gymboree the other day! It was onsale and has a cute little stitched pumpkin on the front... SO cute! Pics to come soon. :)